If ever there was a place on earth I would strongly recommend a fellow Australian to go it would be turkey.. Even If its not on Anzac Day it is just a beautiful place, every which way you turn there is a new beautiful awesome sight.. Everything is green and hilly and just beautiful. We arrived on Wednesday morning after a long night of travel on the train with a very nice couple of Scottish people :) they were doing the whole few months travel too, we couldn't have chosen a nicer couple to share a room with. But any way after a night of broken sleep and going over the boarder with several passport checks and getting out visas, we made it into Istanbul for the morning to soak up some sun rays and be in dire need of a shower and a bed but knowing that wasn't going to happen we sat in the park for the morning to wait for our tour to start. Getting to the spot where our tour started was not too hard, we literally walked to where we thought a bunch of Aussies were haha.. We just listened and laughed as we heard all the typical Aussie sayings and accents its funny to think that's what we actually sound like haha, things like "mate" and "how's it going" and "just hang in there.." Was so funny to hear that I actually miss it, I didn't realise how funny we sound haha. Any way we made it on the bus and tried to get some much needed sleep in before we got to our spot in the dawn service place, after a few stops and some dinner we got our breakfast packs (we actually don't know what was in them as we accidentally lost ours under the seating stand thing whoops) we made our way to seats to spend the night, a night of no sleep and very uncomfortable seats and very cold weather we made it through the night. There was entertainment through the night, the navy band and choir played a few times and they showed a few documentaries about the war so wasn't so bad a wait, just long and cold. Than the service started, and it was just like any other service until the sun started to rise and we noticed that we were right on the edge of the water, the moon was reflecting off the water on one side and the sunrise on the other, what a sight! I don't remember much about the service that is different to what we do at home, but was good. After the service we made out trek up the steep hill to where the battle field is and where they hold the Aussie memorial service. We got there a few hours early so they had so very good entertainment, very Australian music and a good speaker, who was very funny and knowledgeable about everything. It made it tolerable waiting there for the service. And what a service.
I have never been so proud to be an Australian as what I did standing there in the battle field where thousands fell for our land, just an overly emotional time, I could feel the emotion of every one who was there for the memory of a loved one, they were there for the one reason of their memory, the wreath laying was the most emotional, the old veterans giving their respect and the fathers with their children in memory of their great grandfathers and so on. I had never cried during the anthem before and I did today, it was hard to sing and when they give the blessing at the end and say lest we forget and we all repeat, I couldn't even talk. What an experience.
Any way I am in dire need of sleep right now so good night and photos maybe tomorrow :) xxx
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